


Partings

by nightwalker



Category: YuYu Hakusho
Genre: Angst, Apocalypse, F/M, Friendship, Future Fic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-08
Updated: 2011-08-08
Packaged: 2017-10-22 09:22:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/236528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightwalker/pseuds/nightwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuusuke is tired of saying goodbye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Partings

**Author's Note:**

> The first part of _The Thousand Years of Solitudes_.

The grass was wet beneath him, moisture seeping slowly through Kurama's shirt and slacks and refusing to be warmed by his body's heat. The night around him was mostly still and silent as he lay back, arms folded beneath his head, legs crossed at the ankles. The power was still out down in the city, eliminating the perpetual glow of Tokyo to some degree, and he could see the stars with an unusual clarity. If he concentrated his senses, he could smell the ozone left over from the storm, the smell of food beginning to rot in kitchens that hadn't had power in nearly two days, hear drops of water falling from eaves and gutters and leaves and splashing into flooded streets.

Yuusuke's footsteps and breathing were their own discordant beat, separate from the rest of the world. But that was so much like Yuusuke that Kurama found the disparity comforting.

The half-demon threw himself to the ground beside Kurama with an enthusiasm that made Kurama tired just to watch and kicked his feet up in the air, ankles crossed. "This is wet and disgusting," he said, and as conversational opening gambits, it lacked panache.

"It's just water and grass and mud," Kurama said easily. "It washes out of almost anything, if you use the proper cleaning agents. And if you are truly bothered by it and wish to return to Genkai's my feelings will not be hurt."

"Nah," Yuusuke said. "It's pretty heavy in there, you know?"

Kurama did know. He'd ventured outdoors as soon as it had been polite, hoping to find the air outside easier to breathe. Now he listened to voices down in the city discuss things like water contamination and flooding and the reports that more rain was coming.

"You think the storm was natural?" Yuusuke asked.

He knew what Yuusuke was getting at and agreed to some extent. The two weeks of heavy downpour had brought most of the island to a screeching halt, flooded the subways, and caused the city to be without power more often than not. There were smaller towns and villages that had been buried by mudslides, and there were no rescue crews that could go and help. It felt very much like an attack, but if it was, then the only aggressor to name was the Earth itself. "I think it's just a storm," Kurama said. "A bad one." He didn't add 'nothing more' because the storm was bad enough all by itself.

"I miss Kuwabara, sometimes," Yuusuke said. "No one else will watch _The Day After Tomorrow_ with me."

 _It only took three years,_ Kurama thought, _for you to admit it. I'm almost proud._ He'd half expected never to hear Kuwbara's name from Yuusuke's lips again, and he wished briefly for a moment of light so he could see his friend's face. "Only the two of you would have thought that watching a disaster movie about the end of the world, during something very close to a natural disaster, was at all in good taste."

"Good taste has nothing to do with that movie," Yuusuke countered. "It's all about watching Los Angeles go down. That was awesome." He was grinning in the dark, Kurama could tell by his voice, and none of the oppressive heaviness they had fled at the temple had found root in the air around them. "When Kuwabara got into school in LA, I sent him that movie. And that one Tommy Lee Jones made because he needed money."

Yuusuke would do something like that. "I'm sure he appreciated the thought," Kurama said to the night, trying not to laugh.

"He said that he'd take a volcano over a horde of demons any day." Yuusuke shifted on the grass and his voice was gravel-rough. "Son of a bitch still got himself killed, though."

 _It wasn't your fault,_ Kurama thought clearly and precisely, but he bit his tongue and kept the words in check. He wouldn't have known which of them he was trying to comfort anyway.

Lightning flickered briefly, out of sight except for the flash and glow. Thunder rumbled across the mountains from the west, the same direction from which the last storm had come.

"Thunder," Yuusuke said.

"Yes." Kurama closed his eyes. "I should head back soon."

"I'm surprised your mom let you out of the house without a life vest and a canoe," Yuusuke laughed. "I mean, Keiko knows I'm not human and she still threatened to make me wear water wings just to come here."

It had been a near enough thing. Grown adult or not, Shiori had no qualms taking her son's safety into her own hands when she thought he wasn't being properly cautious. But she had understood the need for him to be there to say goodbye. "I promised not to be long." It was later than he had planned to stay already, though, and Shiori would soon worry.

Kurama could hear Yuusuke ripping a handful of grass out of the ground. "I was hoping Hiei would show. I mean, she is his sister."

He'd been certain that Hiei would not come, so certain that Yuusuke's words surprised him. "No. He'll see Yukina soon enough now that she's returning to the Makai for good. He won't come here again unless he is forced to." The only ones left in all three worlds who could command Hiei in any way were Mukuro, Yukina and maybe the two of them. And Yukina was leaving.

"So we'll have to go to him, huh?"

Kurama smiled. "I'm sure he'll be thrilled."

They lay in companionable silence for a while, Yuusuke kicking the toe of one shoe against the heel of the other, while Kurama listened to the thunder shaking the mountains miles away.

"A thousand years from now," Yuusuke said, apropos of nothing. "That's a heady thought."

Kurama quirked an eyebrow, though Yuusuke couldn't see in the dark. "The passage of history?"

"It isn't history till we've done it," Yuusuke said. "And no. The thought that I'll be around and get to see it all."

"We're assuming you won't find some way of getting yourself killed in the meantime, then?" Safely hidden in the dark, Kurama let a smile twist his lips upward and gave his amusement to the dark sky.

"That's mean," Yuusuke said in a mild voice. "I've only died twice, you know, and both of those times I was totally a hero."

"I've only died once," Kurama challenged, pitching just enough bravado into his voice that Yuusuke wouldn't be able to help himself but respond.

"Twice," Yuusuke countered, exactly as Kurama had known he would. "If you count Yakumo."

"Oh." Kurama waved a dismissive hand in Yuusuke's face. "If you're going to count Yakumo."

"Asshole," Yuusuke said. He batted at Kurama's hand, slapping it away from his face. "Just. I'm not gonna die. And everyone else already is."

Kurama inhaled slowly, counting names in his head and forcing the weight of loss out of his lungs. "Not everyone. Hiei, Yukina. Me, Yuusuke. We're not going to die, either."

"Yeah," Yuusuke said in a flat voice. "But that doesn't mean I can't lose you, too."

"I'm not planning to go anywhere," Kurama said. "I'm not planning to get myself killed-"

"Again," Yuusuke said.

"-again," Kurama finished with a roll of his eyes. "You're not going to be alone for a thousand years, Yuusuke."

Dead silence was his response, and Kurama knew he'd hit the mark squarely on the head.

"Mark the date," Yuusuke said. "So even if we go our own ways somewhere down the line, a thousand years from now we can meet up here."

"Assuming it isn't all under water by then," Kurama sighed as cold raindrops began to fall on to his face.

"I can swim." Yuusuke snapped his legs back and leapt to his feet, offering a hand down to Kurama.

"I can swim, too," Kurama retorted, taking the hand and standing easily. He gripped Yuusuke's wrist tightly for a moment, trying to say everything his friend needs to hear. Yuusuke's eyes were dark and unreadable, even with the occasional flash of lightning, but Kurama just squeezed tightly and let go.

"We should say goodbye to Yukina and head home." Yuusuke tipped his head back to regard the sky warily. "If the rain is starting again, I don't want to leave Keiko and the kids alone."

Yuusuke started walking first, heading back toward the temple. Kurama stood where he was for a moment, glancing down at the small shrine a few inches from where his head had rested on the grass. "Goodnight, Genkai," he said softly, resting a hand atop it briefly.

Then he followed Yuusuke back to the temple to say goodbye.


End file.
